A WRITER'S WITThe Venturer is one who keeps his eye on the hedgerows and wayside groves and meadows while he travels the road to Fortune.O. HenryBorn September 11, 1862Greensboro NCDied June 5, 1910​New York NY

O. Henry

MY JOURNEY OF STATES is a series in which I relate my sixty-year quest to visit all fifty states in the U.S. In each post I tell of my relationship to that state, whether brief or long, highlighting personal events. I include the year of each state's entry into the union and related celebrations. I hope you enjoy my journey as much as I have. This is the thirty-second post of fifty.

North Carolina (1990)

On one Myrtle Beach trip, Ken and I rented a car and drove to our friends’ home in western Virginia. Driving through North Carolina, I was struck with the notion that its African-American residents had ancestors who had lived in the state far longer than many of its white ancestors, and yet the political balance always seemed to sway in the other direction. That situation does seem to be changing.

​North Carolina is the twelfth of the thirteen original colonies and celebrated its bicenquinquagenary in 2014.